1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to the controlling of discrete operations in the processing of communications in different frame formats.
2. Background Information
There are multiple different air interface standards used by cellular telephone systems today. Some companies make integrated circuits that are then used by cellular telephone manufacturers to make cellular telephone data cards. In some situations, it may be desirable for these companies to make one integrated circuit design that is usable by a first cellular telephone manufacturer to make cellular telephones that communicate using a first air interface standard, and that is also usable by a second cellular telephone manufacturer to make cellular telephones that communicate using a second air interface standard. One example of such an integrated circuit is the so-called “digital baseband integrated circuit” of a cellular telephone. In a receive signal path, an incoming signal from an antenna passes through downconverter circuitry in an RF transceiver integrated circuit, and then passes through a receive path portion of the digital baseband integrated circuit. In the digital baseband integrated circuit, the signal path passes through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and then through various modem (modulate/demodulate) sub-circuits that demodulate and decode the incoming information and perform various other functions so as to recover digital data bits of information that were communicated. A transmit signal path also passes through the digital baseband integrated circuit. Digital data bits of information to be communicated typically are encoded and modulated by sub-circuits of the modem.
The resulting information is converted to analog form by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) within the digital baseband integrated circuit. The resulting analog information is then passed to the RF transceiver integrated circuit. The information is upconverted in the RF transceiver integrated circuit, and the resulting upconverted signal is amplified and is driven out onto the antenna for transmission. New circuits and techniques are sought for making a single digital baseband integrated circuit design that is usable to communicate information using multiple such air interface standards.